When Kevin Owens failed to defeat Cody Rhodes for the WWE championship at Saturday Night’s Main Event last night (Sat., Dec. 14, 2024) in Long Island, New York,

he responded with a post-match sneak attack. When he was done, he had laid out Rhodes with a package piledriver.

And you know how seriously WWE takes piledrivers these days.

Indeed, Rhodes did a stretcher job to sell the damage and the company has since posted this update,

designed to sound as scary as possible while making clear he’s not really injured:

BREAKING: Earlier today it was confirmed that @CodyRhodes suffered cervical swelling and was kept overnight at a local hospital for observation. While X-Rays were negative for a fracture, Rhodes has been officially diagnosed with axial compression of the cervical spine, as well as a cervical strain with spasm.

I’m no doctor but that’s a great way to make it sound scary while leaving the door open for an early return from it, relatively speaking.

We’ll likely see and hear more on Friday Night SmackDown this coming week.